More beach time for the mdawgs today. It's already 86 degrees before 7am. Much more palatable than an Atlanta 86 degrees though. They have a really nice gym so no need to let the strength training slide. 3-4 miles and abs shortly.

mini-i will attempt to not do anything stupid. running wise may be easier then real life

ra-enjoy the recovery miles

mdawg couple-you may want to go into the travel promotion business. sounds like a great spot

srd for me. not going to do anything stupid but i think i am going to lean more towards a 2 week taper then 3 week. i should be harvesting next week so running will become more difficult so i think i want a slightly harder week this week then i normally would have

Six easy miles today, pretty easy week overall. That's a good feeling. Still doing the morning runs though, but I have more time to do them. I can relax and smell the coffee a little bit longer. a

RA - I'm in the same boat, today and tomorrow are short and sweet.

Mdawg - Enjoy that beautiful weather, vacations are too short!

TaylormadeRW - I am will do 2 medium weeks, then the final week will be even more taper. See how that works out for me. I don't think I would be increasing fitness at this point, I just don't want to get too antsy.

Late reporting, but I did 22 for the first time yesterday. It was pure hell. I did three seven mile laps at a Forest Preserve and the laps seemed endless. After the first lap I felt like I should have after two laps. I thought for sure I would quit after two, but managed to make all three laps. It was a great lesson in mental toughness for me. I am now confident I can make it the whole distance in 3 weeks. Best of all I seem to have come out of the run leg weary, but without any leg concerns. I wore compression socks to bed and they seemed to help. I am sooo ready for my taper and a couple of cool early morning runs in Denver this week.

Excited for all of you in your taper! My local friend is also running Chicago this year and got in her 20 miler as well this weekend. Thinking back to last year at this time and how excited I was getting for my first trip to Chicago and of course that amazing marathon! I'm jealous of you all!

Mini- fantastic job on the 5k- and I love how it was sandwiched in with your other miles! Very impressive times!

RA- I need to go back because I don't remember seeing how your DD's 50 yd dash went! Hope it was great and hope no face plants!

Mdawg- you are so diligent on vacation- I have a hard time hitting the gym indoors while I'm out of town- running is different. Maybe because I work in a gym. Hope you two are thoroughly enjoying yourselves.

Taylormade- Is harvesting corn around the clock? I'm guessing long hours.

Momsrun- I'm the most neurotic person during taper. Bonkers. Well, I'm pretty bonkers all the time, but even more so during taper!

Maureen- smelling my coffee right now! ENjoy the extra time with yours.

Morgan- Fantastic job fighting through that last lap! 22 miles is certainly no small feat! Sounds like you are ready to roll for the big show in 3 weeks!!!

Ran the Talladega half marathon yesterday in Alabama. Weather was the coolest it has been so far this season for me- my garmin says it was 55 at the start. It was sunny. Great set up and really fun, themed atmosphere with the race theme. Course started and finished on the speedway which is over 2 miles long, we also ran around the outside of the track as well as under the grandstands. THis area was flat and shaded, but on concrete. THough totally combined under a mile of it. It also went away from the track for a couple of miles through a nice, rural setting. Garmin registered in at 450 ft of climb, though it didn't feel quite that much. There were a couple of steep inclines and declines. My achilles felt fine throughout. Miles 12 and 13 to the finish were on the track with a strong headwind the entire mile 12 (pace fell 20 seconds off there).

I was super excited with my time- 1:35:46- a new PR by 2:27 and I came in 3rd overall female out of 400 and 30th overall out of 810. First and second were both 10 years younger than me so that made me feel good, too! I'd definitely go back and do this one again (Mdawg take note)- it was only a little over 2 hours from where we live.

Heading to the gym to teach step and then a recovery run, but I would love and appreciate advice for my long run this coming week so will come back on later today and post to all my experienced running friends here.

I was super excited with my time- 1:35:46- a new PR by 2:27 and I came in 3rd overall female out of 400 and 30th overall out of 810. First and second were both 10 years younger than me so that made me feel good, too! I'd definitely go back and do this one again (Mdawg take note)- it was only a little over 2 hours from where we live.

Heading to the gym to teach step and then a recovery run, but I would love and appreciate advice for my long run this coming week so will come back on later today and post to all my experienced running friends here.

Awesome job. That is really quick. You will be winning a lot of local races with that time. Congrats

For me, SRD Saturday, and 10 on Sunday. First double digits since March. Felt great! I also did something yesterday that I haven't done for years (like maybe 20+ years), I touched my toes! I guess all the extra stretching I've been doing for the PF is having an impact. Knocked myself out over the weekend doing work around the house to get it reading to go up for sale, so I slept in this AM. 5 on tap around lunch time.

12 days until race day for me - I finally saw the word 'taper' on the schedule my coach gives me. It's next Saturday and says 'taper week begins'... lol. So I've got speed work on Tuesday (7 x half mile repeats), and a tempo run on Saturday. SRD today.

Remember folks - taper doesn't mean stopping all the hard work you've taken to get here. You're just reducing mileage gradually to be recovered by race day - but not necessarily reducing intensity too much (unless you have injury niggles). We need to stay sharp.

eBunny - big congrats on a PR. that's a big chunk. can you clarify one thing - you say you saw the temperature on your garmin !! do you mean garmin connect post race or the actual watch. I'm getting feature envy if the latter...

Morgan - nice on the 22. And yes - it's definitely cooler here this week, at least in the mornings. Seeing some 40s before it warms up.

What was up with the NFL this week. I'm in a pick'em league. Last week I won. This week I got almost every pick wrong. Some crazy results. Hopefully that trend doesn't continue tonight with our Donkeys.

mini-enjoy your 8-10. Taper in full force here. Not even gonna ride my bike so that I won't overdo it this week

RA-have a good 5

mdawg-glad you are having a good time at the beach

taylormdae-enjoy your SRD

Moms-same here, though I do enjoy it. More time for sleeping and catching up on tv shows lol.

maureen-I told myself I would run in the afternoon this week, but probably not gonna happen. Even though I kind of hate waking up really early for running, I do relish it and feel like a BA when hardly anyone else is out there yet

Morgan-hope you had a nice time with DS at IU this weekend. 22 miles is awesome, and a distance PR like that definitely gets you mentally prepared

ebunny-way to go on your PR and hardware! You are super speedy

jm-ah I wish I could tough my toes. I always was one of the worst at the sit and reach presidential fitness test.

RD-yeah, if you upload your data to the Garmin connect site, then it says the temp for the day. Not sure where it gets that info, but it is handy to compare workouts in different weather

5 with 3 miles at MP. Garmin died 1 mile in, so not sure how my pace was, but it seemed pretty good. I just need to remember to go out about 10-20 seconds slower than GMP and not go out too fast, which is always my downfall. Weather is saying 83 for the high now and humid. Oh joy. I will be praying to the weather gods all this week to bring it down. Sunday's weather is supposed to be a lot cooler, so maybe that will translate over to Saturday as well

Wow, fall has fallen around here. I may have to pull out the long sleeve shirts for the morning. It was very nice on the run, staying cool at 59 degrees, but during shower time I seriously think I needed a space heater for the room. It's funny how fast that happens, hot and sweaty to freezing after a run. I guess that is the nice thing about a fall marathon, you run better because of all that heat training.

Morgan - way to tough it out, that stuff helps a lot during a marathon. I've been there and know how hard it is to keep going sometimes when your head is screaming at you to stop.

Ebunny - I spent so much time with my morning coffee that I finished it all and need more now!

RA and RD - I'm debating how I want to keep up the intensity. I have one MP run, and another with hills. Hopefully that will be enough. Maybe some striders couldn't hurt either.

Taylorma1 - Yes I can relate to that. I've decided to stick to early morning, though a bit more leisurely, then my final week make the switch to afternoons. I fly out Friday 10/11, so I'll spend that M - F sleeping in. Seems like a plan.

Late reporting, but I did 22 for the first time yesterday. It was pure hell. I did three seven mile laps at a Forest Preserve and the laps seemed endless. After the first lap I felt like I should have after two laps. I thought for sure I would quit after two, but managed to make all three laps. It was a great lesson in mental toughness for me. I am now confident I can make it the whole distance in 3 weeks. Best of all I seem to have come out of the run leg weary, but without any leg concerns. I wore compression socks to bed and they seemed to help. I am sooo ready for my taper and a couple of cool early morning runs in Denver this week.

I'm going to guess at Busse Woods? I know the loop is around 7.6 miles. If so, have they started building the second bridge yet to avoid the one traffic crossing?

Jmh: nice job on the 10. I'm sure it feels good to be back in the saddle.

RD: so will you be running your halves in 2:55?

Badger: I'm looking forward to running Milwaukee. Originally thought it would be good to try to PR when I signed up early this year. Then I got lazy this Spring, so not quite in PR condition. Still should be fun.

Taylor: Hope the weather cooperates. If not, maybe you could run the Indy Monumental marathon with RA in November.

Maps: be sure to lock your doors! I've read where Naperville is having a rash of burglaries the past few weeks/months. There have been a few around here where they drive around in a van, which makes it appear they are in the area to do a maintenance job.

Ran 14 hilly miles today at 8:35 avg pace. Felt good and glad to see my HR stayed below the targeted Medium/Long run HR. Feeling good about my conditioning but need a few more quality Tempo, MP, and speed workouts to get my confidence higher.

SRD and the taper madness is already striking me. Got a "really good" idea to try and crash diet to lose a few pounds during the taper. Then I read a post by someone on the marathon page asking if it was a good idea and I told them "no." So, I'll listen to my own advice and just taper my caloric intake proportionately with my running.

Dave McGillivray: Our field size limit has been 27,000. We invited back the 5,600 who were stopped this year and estimated that close to 5,000 would register and return, which made the field size 32,000. Knowing the incredible demand we would experience to run in the 2014 race, we decided to add another 4,000 slots, making the total field size 36,000, thus creating a fourth wave of 9,000 runners. Approval by all cities and towns for this increase was recently granted.

DNF's who BQ'd will be seeded with their 2013 time & can also submit a faster time after Nov. 1, or that's how I read it when I registered. Curious to see if the remaining DNF's are Wave 4 or if Wave 4 will be the added 9,000 first responders, etc. it was one wave in 1996 for the 100th. Having run wave vs no wave, the wave system frees up running space, but reduces spectators for the later waves. However, I think Wave 4 will keep the spectators around this year.

Reread Dave McG's book recently & he seems like a genuinely nice guy. He was also the pioneer of the charity runners as he was one of the first people to raise money for charity by running, swimming, triathlons. It's called The Last Pick & can be found really cheap online. He runs the course every year post-race & was out in Hopkinton when the bombs went off. His family was in the bleachers.

WOW, a big thanks to all the nice comments about my race yesterday. Only other runners can truly appreciate the comments "I got a PR!" and " I cut over two minutes off my best time". Thanks, gang. Still happy about it.

RA- hope someone got some good pictures of you and DD making the run yesterday!! So glad to hear that she was all smiles, too!

JMH- Wow, that's huge about gaining your flexibility back! It really does make a difference! Congrats- guess you can say that's the silver lining to the PF nightmare.

RD- went back and read my hastily typed post from earlier. NO, the temp is not displayed on my Garmin- I just got the temp on Garmin Connect after I uploaded. Man, that would be a great feature though, huh? Wonder if any of the models have that?

MAPS-

H2H- Regarding your question of big expectations for my marathon- it's in November and of course I'd love to PR (Boston was my PR this year). Savannah is pretty flat so I'm excited about that. I don't want to jinx myself, but that half definitely got me excited about trying to cut off at least a few min from my 3:29. So much will ride on my very temperamental achilles tendon that has been messed up for 18 months now. I have to be really careful with it which is so darn annoying. I have another half in two weeks, but this one is really hilly (in Atlanta) so no way I'll be PRing on that course- I'm just hoping to make it through without making the AT worse.

Darth- yep, practice what you preach! I try to remember that since members at the gym are always asking my opinion on things.

OK, so here's my training question I mentioned earlier: I've LOOSELY been following Pfitz 18/55, and by loosely I mean attempting to get somewhat of the same weekly and LR mileage as prescribed as well as some of the speed/tempo work. I can't do it in the same order as listed due to my gym class schedule, and of course I know that I can't even call it following a plan, however it's the best I can do given my stupid gym class schedule.

Typically I do my LRs on Thursdays, but I try to shift them to the weekends as the marathon gets closer. SInce I was running this half marathon yesterday, I moved the 20 mile LR prescribed to the week before and ran it last Sunday, the day after I ran in a 10K race. I looked at that Sat-Sun combo like the one prescribed for this week (8k-15k tune-up race, then 17 mile long run). It definitely was a lot for me, and that combined with knowing I'd be running the half yesterday, I used last week as a cut-back week so I could have a mini taper for my half. Because I didn't run 20 this past weekend (moved it to the previous week), I'm feeling I should do a 20 this week. However, the plan calls for me to run 18 w/14 at MP in two weeks. I'll be running a half marathon that day, so I'm wondering- this week should I run 18 with 14 at MP or 20 without MP given I just did the half and plan to do another half in 2 weeks? I've done two 20 milers this training period- 1 week ago and 2.5 weeks ago. I will have at least one more 3 weeks prior to the marathon.

So in all that mumbo-jumbo- should I do 18 w/ 14 at MP, 20, OR 20 w/ 14 at pace? Advice appreciated and welcome! Also, better to run it on Thurs, 9 days before half or Sat, 7 days before half? Oye, I need a coach.

I'd skip the MP run eBunny. You don't want to overdo it. 2 x half marathons @ faster than MP within a 15 day period is enough. I'd run 20 easy myself to get a bit of recovery, but also continue getting the aerobic adaptions.

So, mini said don't do anything stupid... I decided to take my typical short cut through the woods to make it a 5 miler. Managed to catch my foot on an exposed root and hit the dirt. I think that is the 1st or 2nd time I've ever fallen over during 11 years of running. I slipped on ice once 5 or 6 years ago. No harm done just felt like an idiot so had to share. Thanks for jinxing us all mini!

H2H: thanks!! It is scary as there are so many repair trucks around. There were also a lot of smash & grabs at kid's sports events with people leaving purses & briefcases in the locked cars. Stay safe!!RA: glad you 're ok! Only twice, ever? I average that if not more per year. I trip more in the spring/fall with my allergies/sinus throwing off my balance.

So, mini said don't do anything stupid... I decided to take my typical short cut through the woods to make it a 5 miler. Managed to catch my foot on an exposed root and hit the dirt. I think that is the 1st or 2nd time I've ever fallen over during 11 years of running. I slipped on ice once 5 or 6 years ago. No harm done just felt like an idiot so had to share. Thanks for jinxing us all mini!

You'll all be relieved to hear that I stopped my Garmin as I hit the ground. Priorities.

So, mini said don't do anything stupid... I decided to take my typical short cut through the woods to make it a 5 miler. Managed to catch my foot on an exposed root and hit the dirt. I think that is the 1st or 2nd time I've ever fallen over during 11 years of running. I slipped on ice once 5 or 6 years ago. No harm done just felt like an idiot so had to share. Thanks for jinxing us all mini!

You'll all be relieved to hear that I stopped my Garmin as I hit the ground. Priorities.

So, mini said don't do anything stupid... I decided to take my typical short cut through the woods to make it a 5 miler. Managed to catch my foot on an exposed root and hit the dirt. I think that is the 1st or 2nd time I've ever fallen over during 11 years of running. I slipped on ice once 5 or 6 years ago. No harm done just felt like an idiot so had to share. Thanks for jinxing us all mini!

You'll all be relieved to hear that I stopped my Garmin as I hit the ground. Priorities.

RA- I paused mine right before I went down on my last splat, too! It seriously was rote!